I’m pretty sure that if you look on many people’s desktop backgrounds on their computers you will see a picture of a beautiful tropical beach. We have been living for the past week on that beautiful tropical beach. Zanzibar is truly paradise! Our first two days on the island were spent in Stonetown; it is a mixture between an old Middle Eastern city and a tropical island. Our hotel had a gorgeous rooftop terrace where we ate breakfast and enjoyed the amazing view. Stonetown is full of really neat architecture, twisting, winding alleyways and some of the most unique, ornate doors I’ve ever seen (this might sound a little weird but you should google Zanzibari doors and you’ll see what I mean). My favorite part of our days in Stonetown was going to the food night market in Forodhani Gardens. As the sun sets in Stonetown different vendors start setting up their tables covered with piles of amazing, fresh seafood, meats, fruits, bread, Zanzibari pizza, and the best thing ever: sugar cane juice! We began our feast with sugar cane juice; a man shoved long stalks of sugar cane through a winding press to squeeze out the juice and added lime and ginger to it. It was one of the most refreshing drinks I have ever had (though this might be because we had been walking around Stonetown for a couple hours and were really hot and sweaty). As we made our way past heaping tables of seafood, people would call out to us and explain what they were selling. We were quite overwhelmed but decided to just start tasting things. The vendor gives you a plate, you select which pieces of seafood you want to eat and he takes them to the barbeque to cook them to perfection for you. Some of the things we ate included lobster, octopus, barracuda, shark and kingfish, as well as beef skewers, coconut bread (so good!) and more sugar cane juice. This delicious feast set us back $15!!! Best thing ever!
After two days we headed to the east coast of the island to our secluded resort, the Tamarind Beach Hotel. We stayed in a bungalow looking out on the pool, a lovely patio with hammocks and flowers and just beyond that, the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean. As we went down to the beach for the first time I was speechless at the beauty around us. I had only seen water this color and beaches with such white endless sand in magazines and postcards. On one of our days here we went on a snorkeling excursion in a creaky little dhow sailboat that needed to have the water bailed out of halfway through our trip. Regardless, we were taken far offshore and anchored and we dove into the water. I’ve been snorkeling many times but never have I seen as many fish as I saw here in Zanzibar. The visibility wasn’t the greatest because this is the rainy season but the number of fish made up for that for sure. I saw an angel fish that was bigger than my head and I think I found Nemo. We spent a couple hours snorkeling and eating fresh pineapples, mangoes, bananas, passion fruit and watermelon. It was great. The rest of our time here we just spent going for walks on the beach and hunting for shells, we found some really cool ones, swimming in the pool and in the ocean, and lying in hammocks watching the waves crash and reading many books. It has been a great week. Having been severely limited in our food choices in Usenge we are in heaven here eating so much good seafood, pizza for Olivia, delicious tropical fruit and many other yummy things. Today is our last day and the other 4 people that have been staying here checked out, so we have the whole place to ourselves. Tomorrow we fly back to Nairobi and then to Paris! We will spend the next few days in Paris and then head home; pictures and stories coming later. This week in Zanzibar was the perfect end to our time in Africa for now.
Love,
